MST3K: The Wild World of Batwoman

More fun from Mike and the bots...

There has never been a TV show like it. A guy and two robots watching terrible movies and cracking wise. Probably the same kind of thing that you and your friends have done a hundred times, with one exception - they're funny.

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 is, unashamedly, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. There are a couple of episodes and one movie available on DVD, and we'll be looking at them over the next few days. Next up is The Wild World of Batwoman.

The Movie

There is no way to prepare you for how truly atrocious this movie is. It's a jumble of elements thrown together that make no sense, have no narrative flow, and aren't even always from the same movie. These are the kind of movies that work best on MST - when Joel or Mike and the bots are just worn down by the complete and utter crapitude of the movie.

Apparently there's this mad scientist, and this Mexican wrestling looking guy and Batwoman, who's some sort of dominatrix-cum-superhero, and her gaggle of nubile girls, and - well, there's no point in even trying. Let's put it this way: As the movei winds to its conclusion, Tom Servo just starts screaming at the screen:"END! END!!"

This is one of the funniest episodes of MST. The crew is firing on all cylinders, and a couple of the jokes had me in tears. I find myself kind of dreading the host segments in the Mike years, but the segments on this episode aren't that bad. Except for the atomic hairdryer. Stinkaroni.

Wild World of Batwoman may have the best, and most surreal moment in all of American cinema - I'm giggling as I type this - In a seance (we're never really certain why there is a seance), Batwoman contacts a spirit who suddenly and without reason starts barking in some kind of phoney Chinese. And it just keeps happening. Again and again. Even Mike and the bots are speechless, except to finally offer an apology to all Asians and all human beings everywhere.

Since Batwoman is a little on the short side, the Satellite of Love crew must first endure a short subject about cheating (it feeds the theme of the rest of the host segments) that is also unbearable funny.

I've seen this episode a dozen times, but even still, I laughed until my head hurt when rewatching it for this review. One of the best.

9 out of 10

The Video

The host segments are grainy, and the movie presentation itself is washed out, and it can be hard to tell what's going on on screen. Which is sort of a blessing.

4 out of 10

The Audio

Flat. The movie segments just aren't mixed right - you can't always hear what is being said in the movie, even when no one else is talking. Again, a blessing.

4 out of 10

The Extras

The MST discs from Rhino sport what is perhaps the most dubious special feature of all time: The uncut, un-MST version of the movie in the episode. Why anyone would ever want to watch Wild World of Batwoman without the bots as a shield is beyond me, but if you hate yourself that much - it's here.